Bray Studios is a British film and television facility in Water Oakley near

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in th ...

. It is best known for its association with

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve class ...

History

Down Place

Down Place, a large

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

side house in the Berkshire hamlet of Water Oakley, was built in the 1750s for

Richard Tonson Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

, the Member of Parliament for Windsor and relative of publisher Jacob Tonson. After Tonson's death in 1772, the house was owned by the Dukes of Argyll and subsequently by John Barker Church. A later owner, Mr Hudleston, sold the property to

Henry Harford Henry Harford (5 April 1758 – 8 December 1834), 5th Proprietor of Maryland, was the last proprietary owner of the British colony of Maryland. He was born in 1758 the eldest — but illegitimate — son of Frederick Calvert 6th Baron Bal ...

in around 1807. The Harford family continued to occupy the house at the time of the 1901 census. At some point after this, the house was vacated except for the west wing where the Davies family resided. Subsequently, the main building largely fell into dereliction.

Hammer Film Productions (1951–1970)

In 1951,

bought Down Place, a location they had used in 1950 to film '' The Dark Light''. The premises were largely derelict, and Hammer used the building's interior for filming before constructing a

sound stage A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...

on the estate in 1952. The first full production at the studios was the 1951 film '' Cloudburst''. In 1959,

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

bought a 49% share in the studios worth £300,000 (£ in 2019); the agreement saw a co-production deal whereby Columbia would produce five films a year at the studios. As this five-year agreement ended, Hammer founder James Carreras sold shares in the company to Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). This deal, made in 1963, saw Hammer obligated to move their production to

Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...

. At this time, the studio complex of Bray consisted of four sound stages ranging from to ; one of the stages contained a

water tank A water tank is a container for storing water. Water tanks are used to provide storage of water for use in many applications, drinking water, irrigation agriculture, fire suppression, agricultural farming, both for plants and livestock, chemi ...

. Other facilities included a stills department,

dressing room A changing-room, locker-room, (usually in a sports, theater, or staff context) or changeroom (regional use) is a room or area designated for changing one's clothes. Changing-rooms are provided in a semi-public situation to enable people to ch ...

s, set design and construction departments,

production office A film Production Office is the administrative office responsible for managing a film production. The office is responsible to the Film Producer and includes the Production Manager, Assistant Director and one or more Production Assistants. Typical ...

s and administration departments. Audio recordings at Bray suffered as a result of the studios being within the

flight path In the United States, airways or air routes are defined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in two ways: "VOR Federal airways and Low/Medium Frequency (L/MF) (Colored) Federal airways" These are designated routes which aeroplanes f ...

of Heathrow Airport. The final Hammer film produced in full at Bray was 1966's ''

The Mummy's Shroud ''The Mummy's Shroud'' is a 1967 British DeLuxe colour horror film made by Hammer Film Productions which was directed by John Gilling. It stars André Morell and David Buck as explorers who uncover the tomb of an ancient Egyptian mummy. It als ...

''; by November 1966 the move to Elstree was complete. In 1968, the last member of the Davies family left the house and the wing was converted into luxury flats. At the suggestion of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

, as ABPC had become, Hammer sought to sell Bray Studios. Initially valued at £250,000 (£ in 2019), Hammer sold the site in November 1970 for approximately £70,000 (£ in 2019).

Post-Hammer era (1970–2014)

Following their purchase, the premises were renamed the Bray International Film Centre and a fifth sound stage was constructed. Production continued at Bray, including

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wo ...

for series such as '' Doctor Who'' and '' Space 1999''. In 1984, Redspring sold the complex to the Samuelson Group for £700,000 (£ in 2019). Samuelson provided the complex with a £2,000,000 (£ in 2019) investment before selling the site to a property development company who planned to demolish the sound stages and convert Down Place into office buildings. In 1991, television producer Neville Hendricks bought the complex and allowed film production to continue. At this time, the soundstages at Bray were used as a rehearsal facility for large musical events and touring acts, including, Led Zeppelin in July 1979, in preparation for their two shows at the Knebworth Festival in August of 1979, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and on numerous occasions by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters.

Sale (2014–2019)

In 2014, Hendricks announce his intention to sell the site, explaining that it was not economically viable citing competition from the studios at Pinewood and

Shepperton Shepperton is an urban village in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, approximately south west of central London. Shepperton is equidistant between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD ...

, as well as Bray's location in a

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

. He sold the complex to a property development company who submitted a planning application in 2015 for luxury apartments and demolition of the sound stage buildings; demolition of buildings at Bray began in 2017.

Reopening (2019–)

Filming resumed at Bray in 2019 with all three episodes of the BBC's '' Dracula'' having scenes filmed at the complex. In June 2020,

Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council is the local authority of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and dist ...

approved plans to expand the complex with new studios and workshops.

List of productions

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray Studios (UK) 1951 establishments in England British film studios Companies based in Berkshire Bray, Berkshire British companies established in 1951 Hammer Film Productions